From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V5 #85 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Saturday, April 8 2000 Volume 05 : Number 085 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: diamond wars (COMPLETELY OT) ["Kathleen T. Presser" ] Re: Alloy: diamond wars (COMPLETELY OT) [Robin Thurlow ] Re: Alloy: diamond wars (COMPLETELY OT) ["Kathleen T. Presser" Subject: Re: Alloy: diamond wars (COMPLETELY OT) Thanks Robin, be sure to read the article. I never buy diamonds anyway, but this just enforces my decision not to buy diamonds. Geez, the things people do just to make a buck!! By the way, while we're on the subject of corrupt companies, Wal-Mart, Nike and Kathy Lee's products are made by slave labor in South America and in other remote places in the world. Check out this website for more interesting information - http://www.democracynow.org. This may be political, but politics affect our lives wether we like it or not. Peace, Kate;-) RThurF@aol.com wrote: > Many of you may remember the long rant I posted here a couple of years ago, > about the brutal wars in Africa... to quickly remind you (and for those who > were not with us then), these are actually turf wars which are being funded > by the diamond industry in order to gain land rights. I'd first heard of > this on BBC Radio and I could not have been more horrified by the reporter's > story of whole cultures being torn apart, rampant slaughter of innocent > families, and the unspeakably cruel exploitation of children as 'soldiers' in > this war, all just to line the wallets of a certain diamond conglomerate. The > journalist could not give out the name at that time, because he felt that > those in charge were so powerful, and the network of corruption so > widespread, he literally feared for the safety of his own family if he should > reveal it. It all resulted in my begging everyone I knew not to buy > diamonds, to say the least.... Well, much to my elation, after all this > time, the story has finally made it to the front page of the New York Times!!! > go to: > http://www.nytimes.com/ > if you wish to be informed (it's a quite long story but well worth reading) > If you receive the digest version of Alloy & want to look it up at the NY > Times site archives, the article is in the Thursday, April 6, 2000 edition, > and the article is titled "Africa's Gems: Warfare's Best Friend". > > Now it's in the NY Times.... let DE BEERS try to deny it. My tremendous > respect goes out to that very brave BBC reporter who first broke the story > more than a year ago. > > Thanks for listening to me rant.. again... on the subject, > Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2000 12:12:29 -0500 From: "Krzysko, William" Subject: RE: Alloy: diamond wars (COMPLETELY OT) Interesting. I had heard about the diamond war before, but I wasn't sure if any direct connections were made to companies. A few months ago one of the American networks did a fluff piece on diamonds, and it was pretty weird. De Beers isn't allowed to operate in the US, because they are an outright monopoly. If there were competition, diamonds would probably cost pennies. Even if they weren't involved in wars and oppression, they seem like such a slimy outfit. There whole marketing campaign is telling you that your wife or girlfriend will hate you and you'll be a loser if you don't spend all your money on diamonds. - -----Original Message----- From: Kathleen T. Presser [mailto:Kathleen.Presser@corp.go.com] Sent: Friday, April 07, 2000 11:28 AM To: alloy@smoe.org Subject: Re: Alloy: diamond wars (COMPLETELY OT) Thanks Robin, be sure to read the article. I never buy diamonds anyway, but this just enforces my decision not to buy diamonds. Geez, the things people do just to make a buck!! By the way, while we're on the subject of corrupt companies, Wal-Mart, Nike and Kathy Lee's products are made by slave labor in South America and in other remote places in the world. Check out this website for more interesting information - http://www.democracynow.org. This may be political, but politics affect our lives wether we like it or not. Peace, Kate;-) RThurF@aol.com wrote: > Many of you may remember the long rant I posted here a couple of years ago, > about the brutal wars in Africa... to quickly remind you (and for those who > were not with us then), these are actually turf wars which are being funded > by the diamond industry in order to gain land rights. I'd first heard of > this on BBC Radio and I could not have been more horrified by the reporter's > story of whole cultures being torn apart, rampant slaughter of innocent > families, and the unspeakably cruel exploitation of children as 'soldiers' in > this war, all just to line the wallets of a certain diamond conglomerate. The > journalist could not give out the name at that time, because he felt that > those in charge were so powerful, and the network of corruption so > widespread, he literally feared for the safety of his own family if he should > reveal it. It all resulted in my begging everyone I knew not to buy > diamonds, to say the least.... Well, much to my elation, after all this > time, the story has finally made it to the front page of the New York Times!!! > go to: > http://www.nytimes.com/ > if you wish to be informed (it's a quite long story but well worth reading) > If you receive the digest version of Alloy & want to look it up at the NY > Times site archives, the article is in the Thursday, April 6, 2000 edition, > and the article is titled "Africa's Gems: Warfare's Best Friend". > > Now it's in the NY Times.... let DE BEERS try to deny it. My tremendous > respect goes out to that very brave BBC reporter who first broke the story > more than a year ago. > > Thanks for listening to me rant.. again... on the subject, > Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2000 13:23:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Dennis Alexander Subject: Alloy: dennis Monya wrote... > Dennis, I'm around this weekend if you're here and want a tour of Stanford ;) monya Sorry, but my flight leaves this afternoon. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2000 14:39:08 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: diamond wars (COMPLETELY OT) I know..! Diamonds are pretty but there are so many other gorgeous stones that I think are even more pleasing. This is a big reason why I love art Nouveau jewelry so much... not only are there beautiful organic flowing lines to the designs, and artistic depictions of common little animals (like bats, insects, sea creatures, etc :) but the artists almost always used inexpensive yet gorgeous stones & materials... opal, mother of pearl, moonstone, coral, aquamarine, turquoise, cloissonne - which I think I've just totally misspelled..! I wish it weren't so insisted upon that diamonds should have to be the 'gem of choice' for engagement rings etc. It puts way too much pressure on people who are just starting out their lives together & probably don't have very much money. I know there are lots of people who just simply love diamonds for whatever reason, but most of the 'engagement ring' hype is from the companies who are capitalizing on the sale of diamonds for their own benefit. Rasputina wrote an extremely funny spoof on that horrid series of diamond commercials (where they just show people's silhouettes w/diamond jewelry superimposed, and there's this sweeping classical music playing) I laugh maniacally every time I hear their version. Robin T "Krzysko, William" wrote: > Interesting. I had heard about the diamond war before, but I wasn't sure if > any direct connections were made to companies. A few months ago one of the > American networks did a fluff piece on diamonds, and it was pretty weird. De > Beers isn't allowed to operate in the US, because they are an outright > monopoly. If there were competition, diamonds would probably cost pennies. > Even if they weren't involved in wars and oppression, they seem like such a > slimy outfit. There whole marketing campaign is telling you that your wife > or girlfriend will hate you and you'll be a loser if you don't spend all > your money on diamonds. > ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2000 12:06:04 -0700 From: Tony Rivera Subject: Re: Alloy: diamond wars (COMPLETELY OT) >Rasputina wrote an extremely funny spoof on that horrid series of diamond >commercials (where they just show people's silhouettes w/diamond jewelry >superimposed, and there's this sweeping classical music playing) I laugh >maniacally every time I hear their version. There was also a very funny parody of those commercials (I think they're by DeBeers) on the show Family Guy a couple months back. It showed the silhouette of the man and woman and the man gives the woman a diamond ring and she takes it and starts to drop to her knees. Then the music sweeps up and it says "A Diamond. She'll pretty much have to..." A little rude but quite funny nonetheless. Tony ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2000 12:34:27 -0700 From: "Kathleen T. Presser" Subject: Re: Alloy: diamond wars (COMPLETELY OT) My wedding ring is entirely made of silver and is in a celtic design. So there you go. Gee, wonder what T.M.D.R's opinion on this is?? Kate;-) Robin Thurlow wrote: > I know..! Diamonds are pretty but there are so many other gorgeous stones that I > think are even more pleasing. This is a big reason why I love art Nouveau > jewelry so much... not only are there beautiful organic flowing lines to the > designs, and artistic depictions of common little animals (like bats, insects, > sea creatures, etc :) but the artists almost always used inexpensive yet > gorgeous stones & materials... opal, mother of pearl, moonstone, coral, > aquamarine, turquoise, cloissonne - which I think I've just totally > misspelled..! I wish it weren't so insisted upon that diamonds should have to > be the 'gem of choice' for engagement rings etc. It puts way too much pressure > on people who are just starting out their lives together & probably don't have > very much money. I know there are lots of people who just simply love diamonds > for whatever reason, but most of the 'engagement ring' hype is from the > companies who are capitalizing on the sale of diamonds for their own benefit. > > Rasputina wrote an extremely funny spoof on that horrid series of diamond > commercials (where they just show people's silhouettes w/diamond jewelry > superimposed, and there's this sweeping classical music playing) I laugh > maniacally every time I hear their version. > > Robin T > > "Krzysko, William" wrote: > > > Interesting. I had heard about the diamond war before, but I wasn't sure if > > any direct connections were made to companies. A few months ago one of the > > American networks did a fluff piece on diamonds, and it was pretty weird. De > > Beers isn't allowed to operate in the US, because they are an outright > > monopoly. If there were competition, diamonds would probably cost pennies. > > Even if they weren't involved in wars and oppression, they seem like such a > > slimy outfit. There whole marketing campaign is telling you that your wife > > or girlfriend will hate you and you'll be a loser if you don't spend all > > your money on diamonds. > > ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V5 #85 **************************